Boards

Will 2009 be better you think? Even for someone as fussy as me this has been an exceptionally ordinary year, and no, no no for the 13th TIME, its not because I'm getting old, its because everything is so centrist now, even your ATP nonsense. Even the inaccessable is painfully mainstream now. Every album I bought this year got about 2 plays and then left to rot in a pile of CDs or unlistened on my 'i-pod' or whatever. I think the best thing I heard was a hitherto unavailable version of the theme from All Creatures Great and Small.

Pull your socks up everybody - now's the chance for anyone to anything they want thanks to the Internet - just make it interesting and heart rending, and most importantly make it feel like the listener is actually ALIVE.

to see who is the more indier than thou AGAIN? I bought about 50 albums this year which about 15 of which were actually new albums - oh no I didn't commit all my earnings to a steaming pile of below average guitar music. I simply MUST fall on my sword

I was just trying to share and provide you with some alternative listening options since you're feeling so jaded with the whole New Conservative Underground. Which is fair enough, I can see your point in many respects. Can't do any harm to give them a listen though, you might even like some of them. Unless of course you derive pleasure from being dissatisfied with the state of the alternative music community, in which case ignore me and grump away.

I quite like Prole, I rarely agree with him but I like the way he writes on here. Or at least I always read what he writes. I felt the urge to be straight forward and non-cynical and just recommend some music I liked that got released this year. Between me and Prole we will keep the indie universe in equilibrium

its difficult to gauge what is good and what is bad, but even more diffucult to find music which isn't codified between either 'last FM', 'radio 2 indie', 'London Lite rock', 'ATP exclusionism', or '6Music Conventional cackcore'

I just occassionally listen to rinse fm, on thursday nights. Maybe you should give your usual sources a break? Getting mad at obsserver music monthly takes years off your life, you don't need that kind of aggrevation. Or a wholesale change of listening material.

as my current DAB is annoying me - have always been a 'radio listener' since I was 11 in terms of hearing music for the first time so was gutted when everything started celebrating the arse of the world in about 2004.

You've mentioned giving albums 'a couple of plays' and then 'leaving them to rot'. For a lot of albums you need to give them more time than that to properly appreciate them. Don't give up on recent music, just give more time to appreciate the good ones.

"You'll love them, I reckon." but then again this is a friend who thinks Death Cab for Cutie's last album was 'brilliant', so I should have just thrown the CD on the fire or screamed in his face to leave me alone.

about the creeping mainstreaming of alternative music and wittered on about it a bit on the music board the other day.

I would agree that there seems very little about that actively blows you away with attitude as opposed to plain volume, which is why this year I find it hard to care for anything other than the Duchess Says album 'Anthologie Des Trois Perchoirs' or Death Cigarettes' live shows.

With a few exceptions- TV On The Radio 'Dear Science' (my first TVOTR listening experience, very pleasant), Moha! 'One Way Ticket To Candyland', The Bug 'London Zoo', DJ Scotch Egg 'Drumized' and a few others. Not a terrible year but I hope 2009 is an improvement.

i'll admit it hasn't been the strongest year but theres been a few albums im sure will make my favourite albums ever list (off the top od my head Mount Eerie - Dawn, Grouper - Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill, Beach House - Devotion) other great efforts by bon iver and high places, a silver mt zion came up with one of the best songs ever

Good music is good music. If the world and his wife are also listening to it, why should that concern you, me, or anyone else?I haven't bought any albums this year that have leapt into my top ten all time records, but their have been some good releases, many of which have been heavily covered in the music press and newspapers.

I don't really know why I'm bothering with this, I know this is just a wind-up.

the people who "control" music are dull conservative murfuckers. And I'm not talking about all them kiddie murdering record execs. It's you, it's her, it's me, it's them. Well not me, but me if i was her. It's the internet, full of boring indie rock fans who want nothing more than a few nice melodies and some 3 part harmonies and lyrics about missing object x. These people run the internet sub mainstream, imposing and having their tastes imposed by the throbbing web hype machine. And if you don't want it you'd better get away from your computer.

I'm sure superb things have been released this year (hey, i've heard some of them). But you can't find them because The Internet is more interested in talking about Fleet Foxes. Again

for every internet darling like fleet foxes there's a xiu xiu or an animal collective, find it hard to believe the human race has suddenly lost the ability to create good innovative music, think people that think music is not as good as it used to be have lost the passions themselves rather it being the entire worlds fault, they probably just carry on listening to stuff they used to like but find the hit has diminished. I was totally like from about 97-2003 when for some reason my love of music picked up again, now I look back and there was so much good stuff going on if i'd looked for it. Yes there is plenty of mediocre stuff around at the moment but that has always been the case.